It was strength versus strength -- and the Wolverines flexed their muscles, unraveling the "Havoc" defense and turning the game into a 78-53 laugher.

Now here they are, preparing to play in the national championship game Monday night (9:23 p.m. CBS) against a Louisville team that also likes to press and feasts off turnovers.

“It reminds me of VCU, just a little more amped up,” freshman forward Mitch McGary said. “Their pressure is a lot more intense, and how they match up with different guys and bring different guys and back off. It’s kind of hectic. They kind of bring the havoc.

“It’ll be a difficult challenge for us, but if we scout it well and take care of the ball, then we should be in good shape.”

Louisville has created a turnover on 27.3 percent of opponent possessions, second only to VCU. But Michigan is the best in the country at hanging on to the basketball, turning it over on just 14.5 percent of possessions.

Michigan's game against VCU will help it prepare for Louisville's intense pressure on the short turnaround from Saturday night's semifinal win against Syracuse. VCU coach Shaka Smart, in fact, is a second-hand disciple of Louisville coach Rick Pitino.

Smart developed his press principles while working at Florida under Billy Donovan, who once was a Kentucky assistant under Pitino in the early 1990s.

Now, Michigan will face the father of the modern-day press himself, Pitino. Although the the Cardinals insisted this week they are not VCU, and that their press is different than the Rams' trap-heavy scheme.

"What they did against VCU was something amazing, but we just have to play better defense," Louisville point guard Peyton Siva said. "We full-court press, but we don't press like VCU. I think, honestly, we rely on our half-court defense more. Our thing is, we don't trap every single play. We like to run and jump, we like to trap sometimes, we just like to keep the offense on its toes and always ready.

"We know we might not turn them over at the beginning, but we just have to wear them down and wear them down, and continue to just play our game."

Siva's matchup against Michigan point guard Trey Burke will be one to watch in this game, as the Cardinals search for ways to make Michigan uncomfortable.

One way to do that is keep the ball out of Burke's hands, which Louisville says it will try to accomplish.

"Our press is very funny," Louisville forward Wayne Blackshear said. "We have different types of presses. If we make a 3, we're in the 'White' press, make a 2-pointer and it's '22.' So I mean, whatever they give us, we'll give them a different press, so it kind of confuses the other team.

"We know their No. 1 ballhandler is Trey Burke. So if we can get the ball out of his hands, I think we can cause a lot of problems for them."

That puts more pressure on secondary ballhandlers such as Tim Hardaway Jr., Nik Stauskas or even point guard Spike Albrecht off the bench.

Albrecht played 14 minutes against VCU, much of it with Burke on the floor as well. Michigan could again deploy that kind of ball-security lineup to help counter the Cardinals' pressure.